Bertucelli and Gainsbourg Fall not to Far from ‘Father’s Tree’

Almost seven years since her breakout Since Otar Left, Julie Bertucelli is finally setting sail on her sophomore feature. The French filmmaker will be packing her bags for Australia (home of the film’s source material) along with an actress who is coming off a career high and huge win for Best Actress at Cannes for her role as a distraught mother/wife in Antichrist. Charlotte Gainsbourg boards the English language film The Father’s Tree, Cineuropa.org reports that shooting will commence in Brisbane at the start of August and shoot for two months. Further casting is needed to fill the role of the daughter.

Written by Bertucelli, the Aussieland-French co-production is based on author Judy Pascoe’s novel “Our Father Who Art in a Tree”, this centres on 10-year-old Simone, who has recently lost her father and imagines him speaking to her from the top of the large tree in the family garden. Soon, her mother (Gainsbourg) and brothers join in these nocturnal conversations, with the whole family perched on the tree-top, above the noise of the world and beneath the neighbours’ astonished gaze. This remarkable mourning process is subtly explored by Pascoe’s novel, both from the point of view of the child, who matures quickly after her father’s death, and that of her mother, who is devastated by this loss, but clings to life through her budding relationship with another man (despite feelings of guilt). Coincidentally, another great film that tackles similar terrain is Mia Hansen-Løve‘s Le père de mes enfants.

Bertucelli’s debut film is a tour-de-force that won in Cannes and collected some serious accolades on the international scene. In my review I mentioned how I was impressed by the “careful treatment of each sequence kind of makes the viewer wish that the awful truth can somehow spare the film from a tragic ending. Though the story is aimed towards a predictable forecast, it is the cherishedly placed inside a silent and slight emotional ending that supports the knowledge and the knowing-wink of the 90 year-old. In contrast to the rundown apartments and rundown economy of the city of Tbilisi, there is full of color in this film mostly derived from the comedic and dramatic undertones and fine performances.”